I'm using a DVI monitor with HDMI adapter cable, so I just have computer speakers hooked up to the analog audio jack on the Pi. For audio, I had to run "modprobe snd_bcm2835" in the shell to load sound driver and change audio from HDMI to analog in the XBMC settings menu.

I didn't have any media files on USB, so I watched the Big Buck Bunny h264 clip from /opt/vc. Not very interesting after using the hello world command line player. But the exciting part for me was installing the YouTube video add-on. It was simple to do this via the menuing system in XBMC. I was able to do a search for videos:

Several clips played well in full resolution with audio. However, some appeared stretched and the shell could be seen where black letter box rectangles normally appear. I think the issue was for 4:3 video whereas 16:9 video looked ok. Given this is a rough first attempt at XBMC, I'm pretty excited that the Pi will be useful as a streaming player.

Cheers,

Drew

...and when I finally get my own Pi eventually, instead of bumming testing time, I'm going to have to try out some GPIO fun!

hehe... it is kind of surprising to just type xbmc in the console have its full graphical environment popup. I guess that is similar to the process for X but that is very familiar. I was similarly surprised when running the video player 'hello world', press enter and suddenly the console is replaced with 1080p video.

I'd never used it before, so I quite impressed by XBMC. I like how there are lots of 'Add-Ons' to add to new sources of content like YouTube or Icecast. I wasn't sure how well Pi would work as a media player, but after XBMC, I think will do quite nicely as development and testing progresses.

FYI to anyone else trying this image: you have to remember to 'modprobe snd_bcm2835' (or add to a startup script) as the sound driver is still experimental. It did work ok for me for both analog audio and HDMI audio. There is system menu in XBMC with audio settings.

Here is it connected to my LG 32" 720p HDTV:

Returning the Pi to my co-worker today... but not too sad as need to solder a bit and start packing for Maker Faire!

I'm using a DVI monitor with HDMI adapter cable, so I just have computer speakers hooked up to the analog audio jack on the Pi. For audio, I had to run "modprobe snd_bcm2835" in the shell to load sound driver and change audio from HDMI to analog in the XBMC settings menu.

I didn't have any media files on USB, so I watched the Big Buck Bunny h264 clip from /opt/vc. Not very interesting after using the hello world command line player. But the exciting part for me was installing the YouTube video add-on. It was simple to do this via the menuing system in XBMC. I was able to do a search for videos:

Several clips played well in full resolution with audio. However, some appeared stretched and the shell could be seen where black letter box rectangles normally appear. I think the issue was for 4:3 video whereas 16:9 video looked ok. Given this is a rough first attempt at XBMC, I'm pretty excited that the Pi will be useful as a streaming player.

Cheers,

Drew

...and when I finally get my own Pi eventually, instead of bumming testing time, I'm going to have to try out some GPIO fun!